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Thursday, 1 August 2013

This is the second part of my adventures in Scotland - see part 1 here peeps.

Our mate James picked us up at midnight from Edinburgh airport as we were staying with him in Perth - about 45 mins drive from Edinburgh.

Perth Train Station - As Ange (siss) was working Friday I took myself to Glasgow for the day - only a one hour train ride from Perth and the scenery was breath taking from the train window.

See - breathtaking. This was May and there's still snow around.

The British always whine about the weather, but the whole time we were in Scotland it was BEAUTIFUL - sunny and warm. Oh, on our last day it started to drizzle ;-)

George Square and the Glasgow City Chambers

Glasgow - Some insanely awesome street art on the side of a 4 story building .

Shoe store window - because why not?

I bought these from the above store - can't remember the name! #shoecoma

And from TK. Maxx - these divine Ted Baker Coral pumps **

Glasgow Cathedral was under renovation so I didn't bother them ;-)

The Necropolis - 50,000 people are buried up here. It's like a public park you can walk around.

I didn't have to time but I would LOVE to go back one day and walk around this eerie place.

Traditional-ish Scottish Street performers. They were so awesome I gave them 2squid ;-)

Was GUTTED to leave Glasgow but I had to train back to Perth and my ticket was only valid in off peak times so... had to miss the commuters!

Back in Perth we went out to a nice French Bistro. Had the Mushroom Vol-au-vent starter #foodgasm, and the slow cooked beef cheek for my main which came in a small single serve caserole dish - too cute. Also too FULL!

Then it was off for BEERS.

Perth's only Student bar - "That Bar", caught this grungy band - Izak. They were very "Kyuss" I thought they were pretty awesome. I tried to find them on the WWW but apparently there are 5 million Izaks... After a long night on the tiles we woke up early (9am) to head off to...

St. Andrews - The Home of Golf

St. Andrews Castle - kinda fell apart

Cathedral - ol' Henry VIII dismantled a lot of the monasteries so cathedral got no roof!

It's a really nice town, especially if you like golf - and there was good bakery window photo ops.

Fisher & Donaldson = Best Bakery Everrrrrr!

Angela and I both went with a coffee puff - choux pastry with coffee cream and coffee icing.

Tuesday, 30 July 2013

It started as a side project for Yeardley when she couldn't find a comfortable pair of heels - we've all been there, instead of searching endlessly she decided to make her own, a girl after my own heart. So the shoes have space age technology memory foam inserts to keep them super comfortable and have less intense arches, some with platforms, to still give you that lift but not at the expense of your back!

Sunday, 28 July 2013

I used to make the plain vanilla ones at work in the bakery - but the recipes was 20 times this - and I would make TWO batches at a time ;-) I know the recipe off by heart (it's a pretty small recipe Paula) These are super yum though and the added spice makes them a bit exotic!

Ingredients:

200g Butter

73g Icing sugar (confectioners/powdered)

210g Flour (plain NOT Strong or High grade)

1t Ground Ginger

1/2t Ground Cinnamon

(feel free to omit the spices and instead add a dash of vanilla for plain old melting moments

Method:

Cream butter and sugar until light and airy. Sift together flour and spices (I sift it 4 times to make it really airy) then gently fold into butter mixture to form a soft dough.

At this stage you can either roll into balls and flatten with a fork OR use a piping bag to make rosettes. (as there is no raising agent or egg these cookies remain the same - they don't rise or flatten, how they go into the oven is how they come out!)

Bake at 175C for approximately 12 mins or until just beginning to color and smell divine.

When cool match the cookies up with the same sizes and ice with butter cream flavored with raspberry jam. Alternatively just eat them as is!

These biscuits are SO yummy and because of their simple ingredients are ridiculously fool proof.

A few tips for nice cookies are: Don't ever feel possessed to whip the the dough once you've added the flour - it may make a nice soft pipe-able dough but your cookie will be as flat as pancake when they bake as you've activated the gluten and destroyed its structure!

Don't over-bake cookies, if in doubt pull them out! And always set on their hot tray for 5 minutes unless the recipe says otherwise.

In most recipes you can substitute half the white sugar for brown sugar - it adds richness and color.

P.S. do you like the plate they're sitting on? I painted it at Splashy and they fire it for you.